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September 2011

Is it time to invoke Cicero?

By Raman Jokhakar, Mukesh Trivedi, Hon. Jt. Secretaries
Reading Time 1 mins
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“The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. . . . .,” Marcus Cicero, 55 BC. Down the ages, Cicero’s words have fallen on deaf years of sovereigns. Athens is bankrupt.

Washington, the modern-day Rome, is on the brink of bankruptcy. Stocks are falling, leading currencies are losing their worth, and investors across markets are cutting their positions before August 2 when the world will come to know whether the US can borrow more. If it can’t, a default stares in the face of the largest economy that suddenly looks like a ponzi scheme — something dollar-sceptics have been predicting for a decade. But since a lot is at stake the big hope is that US lawmakers will somehow find a away to avert a default by the US.

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